You never know what’s going to send a child into a meltdown.
Last week it was a box of crayons, 16-count to be exact.
My two-year-old grandson dropped it on the floor and we didn’t notice that one rolled under the couch.
I helped him pick them all up and when we were done, one was still missing. I told him not to worry, it was just one crayon. I tried to close the box to put them away and then the tears started. “No!” he exclaimed, attempting to pull the box from my hands.
He was as upset as any two-year-old can get and adamant that we could not close the box without the missing crayon. He felt the incompleteness of it. Just one crayon, but one crayon that counted.
So when I was assigned to write a newspaper article on the census, I found it more than coincidental. The main gist of the story was why it’s important for everyone to participate, and how many faith-based entities are offering programs to educate and assist hard-to-count populations to participate.
I interviewed a number of public officials and program administrators who shared their wisdom and expertise about the process of the census, which is mandated by the U.S. Constitution to take place every 10 years. But one person’s very simple yet profound statement evidenced the bottom line for me.
He said, “The most important reason for everyone to participate in the census is because, as children of God, everyone counts.”
When I hear those words in my head even now, I get choked up, because when I watch the news or even experience, in word and deed, how some of us strive to belittle others, it hurts my heart.
This is not what Jesus taught us. It is not what he prayed for, and I believe “counting out” others would break his heart too. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus laments over Jerusalem, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling.”
Jesus, fully human and fully divine, expressed a wide range of emotions, including joy, frustration, anger, sadness, and grief. I have to believe that in seeing how we so often treat each other, the Jesus of Scripture would grieve.
Writing an article inevitably leads me to some self-reflection, so It seemed that Lent would be an appropriate time for me to reflect on the question, “Who counts in my life?” beginning with my family and expanding out to my friends, the broader community and other countries. One lesson came from paying attention to the posts I skimmed over on Facebook. It was a hard reality to face.
When you come to the realization that you have a lot of work to do in order to live your faith the way you should, it can be overwhelming and often leads to justification as to why change is not necessary. We may fool ourselves but we certainly can’t fool God.
But where do we start? With the children.
It may be hard for us to make a personal change right away, but we can certainly make sure our children grow up learning that every person has inherent dignity and is loved by God.
Or maybe it is the children who will teach us, with a box of crayons.
Mary Regina Morrell is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.